Monday, October 23, 2017

Circular no.25/ 2017 - CBDT- Clarification related to POEM - 23 Oct 2017

Some of the major highlights of the circular issued dt 23 Oct 2017 (By Author)-

1- The Concept of POEM i.e. Place of effective management is applicable w.e.f  01 April 2017 onwards on Companies having turnover over 50 crores in deciding residential status other than Indian Companies,

2- The reason of issuing such circular was to clarify the question "certain multinational companies with regional headquarter structure merely on the ground that certain employees having mUlti-country responsibility or oversight over the operations in other countries of the region are working from India. and consequently. their income from operations outside India may be taxed in India"

3- Para 7.1 of the guidelines provides that if on the basis of facts and circumstances it is established that the Board of directors of the company are standing aside and not exercising their powers of management and such powers are being exercised by either the holding company or any other person (s) resident in India. then the PoEM shall be considered to be in India,

4- However if there are certain POLICIES or PROCESS set by HEADQUARTER and the same are being followed by the management/ concern/ person in India then it would not be treated as BOD of the company is standing aside,

5- Hence it is clarified that so long as the Regional Headquarter operates for subsidiaries/ group companies in a region within the general and objective principles of global policy of the group laid down by the parent entity in the field of Pay roll functions, Accounting, HR functions, IT infrastructure and network platforms, Supply chain functions, Routine banking operational procedures, and not being specific to any entity or group of entities per se; it would, in itself, not constitute a case of BoD of companies standing aside and such activities of Regional Headquarter in India alone will not be a basis for establishment of PoEM for such subsidiaries/ group companies,


Which essentially means that merely becoz of the directions follows by Indian Counterpart related to the activities (per FOREIGN Counterpart) as mentioned above would not allow any side-way to conclude STANDING ASIDE  concept  mentioned in para 7.1 while assessing POEM and OTHERS FACTORS also to be considered...... 


For reading full circular please refer - http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/news/circular25_2017.pdf

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